Richard Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince added 14 points apiece for
the Pistons (63-15), who also won 63 games in 1988-89 en route
to winning the first of back-to-back NBA titles.

"It shows that they were able to sustain something for a pretty
long period," Pistons coach Flip Saunders said. "People die to
get 50 (victories) and to get 60 is really something. Every win
beyond that shows that you've been able to play at a pretty
high level for a long time."

In what could have been a possible preview of a matchup in the
Eastern Conference semifinals, the Pistons made it quite clear
to the Cavaliers why they are the NBA's best team.

"It was just another game for us," Billups said. "We're just
trying to win every game we can to gain home court through
the playoffs."

Cleveland coach Mike Brown hoped that his team could learn from
the defeat.

"They showed us what playoff basketball is about," he said. "It
was good for us to go through. We've experienced some ups and
downs in the past and we've bounced back before. So I'm going
to spin this into a positive and say that this butt-kicking
was a good lesson for us on both ends of the floor."

The Cavaliers suffered more than embarrassment on the scoreboard
when James - third in the league in scoring at 31.7 points -
tweaked his ankle on a drive to the basket late in the third
quarter. The 21-year-old phenom limped to the locker room.

"It's not too serious," James said. "I don't know who I stepped
on but I did sprain it. I'll see how I feel in the morning and
see if I can go tomorrow. But if I'm not 100 percent, I won't
go."

James likely will miss Thursday's game against New York.

Prince, who was guarding James on the play, wasn't sure what
happened.

"I can't tell what happened because it happened so fast," Prince
said. "He might have stepped on my foot. You hate to see any
player get hurt at this point in the season with the playoffs
coming up. I hope it's nothing serious."

Wallace suffered some pain of his own at the 6:34 mark of the
second quarter when he was the recipient of a flagrant foul by
Anderson Varejao, who was ejected.

After Varejao's hard foul, the Pistons used a 19-6 run to close
the first half and open a commanding 56-29 lead at the break.

In a game against the Cavs here in late February, Wallace
received a flagrant foul for opening up a cut on Zydrunas Ilgauskas's head with his elbow. The teams played in Cleveland
t he next day and a fan held up a sign that said, "Sheed must
bleed."

"The guys have been killing me with that ever since," Wallace
said. "Dale (Davis) wrote that on the (chalk) board tonight.
It's all in fun."

Wallace said that he didn't know what Varejao was doing.

"Whatever it was, it didn't work," Wallace said. "I think he
might have done it to get his teammates to rally, because they
were already down by a lot."

In the second quarter, Cleveland made just 4-of-17 shots and
committed six of its 15 turnovers.

"We're entitled to have bad games," James said. "You just can't
play like we did in the first half. It all started when they
went on an (11-0) run when we were up 19-16. It's something you
learn from."

Maurice Evans scored 13 points and Tony Delk 12 for Detroit,
which improved to 36-3 at home and is on the verge of clinching
the league's best record.

Detroit won three of four games from Cleveland this season.

James scored 22 points to the Cavaliers (47-31), who lost for
just the second time in 13 games. Cleveland already has
clinched the fourth seed.